


Bon anniversaire, bon voyage, bonne nuit

by MerrickGreen



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Compliant through MKAT, F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 23:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20515187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerrickGreen/pseuds/MerrickGreen
Summary: In August 2017, Logan and Veronica celebrate a special birthday before he has to ship off.





	1. Chapter 1

**Today's outgoing voicemail**

Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back. _-Traditional_

I see you everywhere, in the stars, in the river, to me you’re everything that exists; the reality of everything. _\- Virginia Woolf_


	2. Chapter 2

The short blond woman flushed in the heat of the night, following her muscular buzz-cut boyfriend up the three-story staircase. She chased him, eager to continue their steamy exchange from the car. The lovers engaged in some good natured verbal jousting, the playful antagonism cutting through the torrid evening as they made their way up the stairs of the old Spanish-style complex. The mid-August heat was cut by the SoCal Santa Ana winds. The man cradled a tall paper bag he’d been carrying since they left the woman’s car, scrupulously keeping it hidden from his girlfriend’s curious eyes as she admired the sway his body in front of her. 

“You’ve been here over three years,” Logan asked, ”why haven’t you moved someplace bigger? Or at least lower down?”

“It’s been over a decade since you sold your ‘09er mansion. Why haven’t you found a new place?” the diminutive detective shot back, referring the fire-damaged house he had inherited from his father after high school. 

Stopping on the stairwell and twisting his muscular torso, Veronica saw Logan looking intently down at her, keeping the bag concealed in front of him. Licking his upper lip in anticipation, the stairs exacerbating their height differential, he locked gazes with Veronica and rejoined “nothing else has this view.”

Veronica’s flush from the simmering heat and walk up the stairway was renewed under Logan’s frank admiration as she acknowledged his point with a smile and a shrug.

“This suits me,” she replied, answering his original question. “It’s mine. Ours,” she corrected. “I can afford it on the money I make as a private investigator, and Pony loves to run on dog beach, terrorizing the smaller dogs.

“Besides, aren’t you training for the Navy-Air Force Half-Marathon? Three flights of stairs shouldn’t kill you, Marathon Man.” Veronica looked at the angular planes of his face as she asked him the rhetorical question. Logan had run his mouth aboard ship and lost a bet - a frequent occurrence. As a consequence this time, the cocky flyboy was crash training to run a half-marathon by next month, though “Mouth” Echolls would have to run the 13 miles aboard the wave-tossed ship while the official half-marathon took place across the Potomac Parks in DC. The Naval aviator had been positively beefy most of the past three years, but the distance training had left just muscle, sharp edges, and his soulful chocolate eyes. Veronica stole a glance down at his streamlined calves leading up to tightened buttocks, as Logan grunted and nodded his head in grudging acknowledgment of the point. Veronica put a hand on his waist as she sidled up next to him to make the top landing. Veronica was half worried she’d cut herself on sharp V of his hips as she slid her hand along his body, but she knew it was his soft lips that were the most dangerous.

“Your mouth,” Veronica said lightly, standing on her tippy toes so she could brush the side of his lips with hers, “is always getting you into trouble.” Veronica tried to sneak a glance at Logan’s hidden package, but she saw he was wise to her tricks and had moved the bag to shelter it in the shadow of his body. Logan returned Veronica’s frustrated grimace with his signature puckish. 

“You’ll see what it is soon enough,” teased he pilot, knowing she’d appreciate the mystery as much as the gift itself. Veronica didn’t usually make too big a deal out of her birthdays, but even she had felt some build-up as her 20’s came tumbling to an end. She was glad Logan had managed shore leave this month to celebrate, even if he had to ship back to the USS Truman tomorrow.

“Is that my birthday present? Because that’s not big enough to be a pony...” Veronica observed suspiciously.

“You already have a Pony big enough to ride,” Logan pointed out, referring to the oversized dog they had gotten together three years ago. The tiny puppy had been named “Pony” as joke, but the dog had grown into her name; Veronica may well have been able to ride her wayward dark-furred canine if Pony would ever submit to such indignity. Pony still didn’t know her own size, and had a tendency to make Veronica’s small apartment seem even smaller, frequently taking up the entire sofa. Veronica and Logan had dropped the adolescent dog at her father’s bungalow before their afternoon at the shooting range together; Keith had volunteered to dogsit so Logan and Veronica could have some time alone together. 

Reaching past Logan, Veronica slid home the door key and entered the 1-bedroom apartment, Logan hot behind her. Salty humidity followed them into the darkened apartment, which provided little relief from the sticky late-summer evening. The fading moon cast a wan glow through the deep casement windows, giving the apartment an odd checkerboard feel as the white stucco glowed while the interspersed vintage posters about the walls shown nearly black, instead of their usual vivid color. Logan flipped the switch, turning on the lights and bathing the apartment in color once more.

“Now... where were we...?” Veronica asked.

“Apartments.”

“No,” Veronica answered huskily. Cupping the back of his neck, she locked her sapphire eyes with his seal brown gaze, “before that – from the car….” 

The blond pulled Logan down for an intense kiss, lips pressed against Logan’s, sharing spit and breath and passion. Veronica felt a familiar spark jumping into her as their sensitive lips first made contact and a trill of electric excitement ran from her lips to her hips. Veronica ran her left hand under his shirt, the pads of her fingers tracing the fading scars of his youth. Running her hands, stroking Logan’s skin, she felt Logan responding eagerly, putting the bag down and enfolding her in his strong arms. 

Writhing against each other, Logan’s hands wandered upward seeking the clasp to Veronica’s bra. Veronica could feel Logan trace his lips from her mouth to the curve of her neck, his stubbly hair bristling along her jawline as he brushed his lips along her pulsing jugular. Veronica took advantage of his distraction, tilting her head to steal a peek into the bag.

As Veronica leaned to get a better look, Logan’s mouth abruptly left her neck. “Whoa, hold on!” Logan exclaimed, letting go of her and taking a half-step back. “Have you reduced making out to just a clever ruse to see your present before I gave it to you? And here I thought you only wanted me for my body!”

“It wasn’t JUST a clever ruse,” the detective grumbled. 

“The hippies were right - don’t trust anyone over thirty,” the slightly younger Logan jibed.

“Over thirty?! Don’t trust anyone under thirty, either,” Veronica rejoined. “Or did high school teach you nothing?” 

Shifting back a step, Veronica put one hand on her hip. “Besides, I can multitask: hot make out session, check; satisfy my curiosity about birthday present, check. 

“Did you really just get me flowers?” she asked with a moue of distaste. “They say it’s all downhill after thirty, but I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. Because I have to say, flowers seem a little...low effort.”

“Well, the rest of your present is in bedroom, but this,” he said as he dipped his hand into the opening and drew the flowers out, is the main event.” The pale alabaster flowers, each with a yellow sunburst stamen popping from the center of five broad, silky lobes, emitted an apricot aroma wafted through the air. Veronica reached out to lightly caress a velvety, ivory petal that she recognized as the poisonous roadside staple that all California dog owners knew to keep away from their pets - White Oleander. 

“The flowers are lovely,” Veronica conceded, “but Dogsbane?” Veronica withdrew her fair hand from the pearly petals, and fingered a thin green stem leading to ugliest glass vase Veronica had ever seen. 

“I don’t know - something about a tenacious little thing with gorgeous white skin and fine golden blond hair killing anything that doesn’t respect her really spoke to me,” Logan answered. He gazed intently her while he described the flower with obvious affection. “Probably not a good idea to keep a poisonous flower around Pony, but I figured you could bring them in to the office. Maybe offer Vinnie some tea next time he gets out of line.”

Veronica cackled at the thought, a wide smile on her face. “I love the flowers, thank you.”

“And the vase…?” Logan asked with a self-satisfied smirk.

Veronica stared at the misshapen lump of glass for a moment trying to think of something that wouldn’t kill the mood, before Logan continued.

“Well, it IS vintage, which I hear from Corny is all the rage.”

“Wait...” Veronica said her eyes scanning the crude tube, disbelieving. “... you found the smoke bomb bong from junior year?” Logan merely broadened his cocksure grin in response. Veronica was both impressed and chagrined – the last time she had seen it Deputy Sacks was carrying it in one hand while dragging Logan away in handcuffs with the other, over a decade ago. She had thought it gone forever after a friend in the fire department had intentionally “lost” it. Finding it after all this time would have been next to impossible, even for an experienced PI like herself. ; Logan had hunted it down anyway. 

“It’s perfect, Logan,” Veronica continued. “Really. How did you find it?” 

“A little money and a lot of time,” Logan answered sincerely, his smile warming with genuine pleasure at seeing the reaction it gave Veronica. Veronica ran her hands over the knobbly piece of their shared history and thought about what Logan must have done to unearth it. His time, his thought, his respect. Putting in the effort. Investigating for something hard to find because she appreciated the search as much as the gift. Logan continued, “we can’t all be Veronica Mars of Mars Investigations. But, your birthday surprises aren’t finished - I do have a little something else for you in the bedroom.”

“I’ve seen what you have to give,” she said as she set the vase down on the counter and took Logan’s hand in her own, “and I wouldn’t say it’s ‘little’ sailor.” She followed as he lead her back to the bedroom. 

Logan chuckled at the innuendo. “We’ll make sure you get plenty of that, too,” Logan replied, kissing Veronica and quickening her heartbeat. “But, I meant I also got something else. Now close your eyes.”

Still holding her hand, Logan closed the distance between them, bent down and oh-so-gently teased his lips against hers. Unlike the hot-and-heavy makeout in the living room, this was gentle, sweet and reverent, his moist lips just barely scraping hers. After two or three breathy kisses that left Veronica’s mouth tingling, Logan’s tongue peeked out, softly parting Veronica’s lips.

As they kissed, Veronica felt Logan reach under her fitted t-shirt, his warm hand going up the small of her back, skin-to-skin. As much as Veronica found familiar comfort in Logan’s touch, the stucco walls and the closed window of the small apartment trapped the sun's heat all day, leaving the air sweltering. She could feel the heat emanating from his palm into her back, guiding her. Wrapped hot and close in his arms, she followed Logan into the steamy darkened bedroom, and a birthday she would not forget.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Emtifah for all her insight; most all of the good things here are from her comments. Any errors or clunkiness are entirely my own.
> 
> I tried to draft something in the romance genre, and have concluded that I need to work a lot harder and a lot longer at it to be any good. As a result, only chapter 1 is worth putting up, and here it is.
> 
> Takes place about 1 month before the events of The Once and Future Kane, but is a one shot and is independent of that story.
> 
> Any comments or feedback are, as always, appreciated.


End file.
